5 of the Best Apps for Photo Editing

As social media sites continue to change overnight, it is becoming more and more important to produce quality content that will catch your targets eye as they are scrolling. The photos that are on your Instagram, Facebook, website, etc. ultimately represent your brand and while we might not be able to have a professional photographer at our beck and call 24/7, we all do have an iPhone or Android camera. Therefore, it’s always important to put your best foot forward when it comes to editing. As great as Instagram’s built in filters and editing is, it may not be able to get the job done when it comes down to it. Luckily, there are many apps, some free and others very inexpensive, that will do the trick and make you look like a pro!

$2.99

A personal favorite of mine. The app has advanced tools, artwork, and of course, many filters. The app recently updated from “Afterlight” to “Afterlight 2” and is now an all in one editing experience. With frames and different text options the app really allows you to get creative. This one has everything you need and is a great resource.

FREE

This app is easy to use and yet has a large variety of different editing tools that Afterlight lacks. Snapseed has all of the basics like cropping, adjusting exposure, and different filters, but what makes this app especially unique and useful is it’s healing feature. Say you’ve taken a great picture of your storefront or your office and just as you are about to post you realize there are trash cans in the background. There’s no way to crop them out and you don’t want to retake the photo, but no worries, you have Snapseed. You can easily “photoshop” these out with the healing tool! A total lifesaver! Your photo is now ready for posting, totally trash can free.

$2.99

While Facetune has gained a reputation for being used only to alter body images, it does have some great tools beyond the reshaping options. Using the detail feature, you can add extra emphasis to specific areas of your photo that someone could normally miss. The defocus feature can also help with this to blur out any parts of the background that are insignificant. The app also come with filters, a red eye remover, and a whitening feature to brighten those whites and add a little bit of extra contrast.

FREE

VSCO has become one of the most popular photo editing apps, because of its multiple filters (which they call “presets”). The filters are softer and more organic and some look like classic film. The app aims for an authentic editing feel, so if you don’t want to go into too much detail by editing out objects and playing with exposure, VSCO is a good option for you, because you can easily slap on a filter without further editing, post it, and call it a day. Also, like Instagram, on VSCO users can create a profile and follow others to share photos.

FREE

If color is your thing, then this is the app for you. A Color Story helps you create bright and colorful photos that pop with over 100 different filters. You can also create and save your own custom filters to refer back to and create a cohesive feed. Not to mention, the app has a Design Kit with tons of fun fonts and stickers full of color!

Hillary Conheady is a Junior Social Media Manager at The Modern Connection. She graduated from The University of Alabama with a degree in Clothing, Textiles, and Design and is passionate about the ever changing social media world. In her free time, Hillary shares her love of fashion through her fashion and lifestyle blog, hillheady.com and explores Charleston with her family and friends!